When God Was a Rabbit

January 24, 2011
Winman debuts with a heartbreaking story of the secrets and hopes of a sister and brother who share an unshakable bond. Elly and her older brother, Joe, appear to be just like all the other kids in mid-1970s Essex, U.K., but, as is often the case, shocking secrets lurk below the surface for the siblings and Elly's best friend, Jenny Penny—one has been sexually abused, another has an alcoholic and promiscuous mother, another is homosexual—and the weight of bearing each other's traumas erupts in hard to watch ways. As the years go on, each moves forward; for Elly and Joe, this is more easily accomplished, as their family moves away from Essex and Joe's secret is brought to light, relief Elly doesn't receive until much later. As the story winds through time and across the Atlantic, the trio and their families are rocked by 9/11, leading to a final twist that strains belief before settling into acceptable inevitability. Winman shows impressive range and vision in breaking out of the muted coming-of-age mold, and the narrative's intensity will appeal to readers who like a little gloom.

February 1, 2011

Over a 30-year time span, Elly and her older brother, Joe, experience everything the late 20th century has to throw at them, from child molestation to marital upheaval, cancer, and, finally, the terror of 9/11. Joe goes down the rabbit hole of depression when he loses the early love of his life, Charlie, who is abducted and tortured after his father gets a contract to work in the Middle East. When Elly also suffers the loss of a neighborhood friend, Joe comforts her with the gift of a pet Belgian hare whom they decide to call "God." Their father's big win in the football pools transforms the family from middle-class suburbanites to wealthy eccentrics as they leave their familiar Essex surroundings and move to a wooded estate in Cornwall. VERDICT Despite the gravity of events, Winman pulls a good number of rabbits from her hat in a picaresque coming-of-age tale where characters disappear then shockingly reappear. This affecting and original debut is recommended for most public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, 11/22/10.]--Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2011
Elly never feels complete without her older brother, Joe. Its Joe who learns what happened between 5-year-old Elly and the 80-year-old man next door, marking her life, and then gets her a proper friend, a large Belgian hare Joe names God, which comforts Elly until the rabbits untimely death. Solitary English children, Elly and Joe each find, then lose, a fast friend. Charlie, Joes rugby mate, whom, when a teen, he loves deeply, moves to Dubai with his divorced father, and Jenny Penny, Ellys quirky schoolmate, is left behind after Elly and Joes family moves to Cornwall. Both will be found again as the years progress to Ellys midthirties. But no bare-bones plot summary can do justice to this wonderfully wise and compellingly readable tale of love and friendship in all their forms, of family uncircumscribed by biological bonds, and of loss worse than deathall laced with humor that can border on black. In crisp prose, English actress Winman vividly limns the characters, including Elly playing the blind innkeeper and Jenny the octopus in their schools Christmas pageant; Arthur, the boarder who becomes kin, with his yogis prediction of when and how he will die; and the tortured aftermath of 9/11. A remarkable first novel, worth savoring.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)